This story was inspired by the story Welcome to Night Vale by cupidity11
This is Carlos/Cecil, rated M for possible adult themes and language (though I doubt I need it but it's better to be safe than sorry)
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I glanced around the van at the excited group around me. I sighed and leaned back in the leather seat, focusing on a distant cactus. I listened to them as they chatted, talking about the mission. I felt a sudden panic as we neared the town. I glanced at my watch, and just stared at it for a while, running though the items we'd brought in my head. I had the feeling like I was forgetting something. My eyes traced to my ring finger by instinct. The ring was gone. I sighed and looked at the ceiling of the van, in sudden regret for forgetting it. Oh, that's right. I don't need it anymore, I thought. I felt bare without it, though. I looked back at my watch and clenched my jaw. I glanced at Lilly, who had obviously asked me a question. I winced at her, since I didn't know what she asked. She just sighed.
"What do you think this place will be like?" She asked. I shrugged.
"From what we've heard from the scientists who've spent a week there, I'd say it's pretty intense." Samuel said. I nodded. The radio gave a sudden loud shriek, causing us all to cover our ears. Samantha screamed, since it startled her. The screeching suddenly stopped, leaving me with a pounding headache.
Hello listeners. To start things off I've been asked to read this brief notice: the city council announces the opening of a new dog park at the corner of Earl and Summerset near the Ralph's. They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the dog park, and especially do not look for any period of time at the hooded figures. The dog park will not harm you.
"Did you change the station?" I asked nervously. I hoped the screeching wasn't the station being changed.
"No it's still on the same station, same frequency. I guess this just overrode it?" William, our driver, said nervously. I nodded. I looked at the sign for Night Vale. It had many scratches, and parts of the paint were missing. It read "Welcome to Night Vale. Pop 0." I became nervous. On the other side of the sign, it said "Goodbye, Night Vale. Population 1045."
"Did you guys see the sign?" I asked nervously.
"Yeah. It said Welcome to Night Vale population 1045. Why?" Samantha said.
"Did you all see that?" I asked everyone else.
"Why?" Will said, looking at me through the rearview window.
"I saw Pop 0." I said.
"Huh. Did you take your glasses off, or could you not see through your tears?" Thomas asked, his voice a degrading manor. I clenched my teeth. He and my wife had a secret affair for the entire time I was married to her and, being the child that I am, I sobbed instead of doing something about it. I'm never going to live that down, I thought. We drove through town silently and arrived at the lab. I got out, irked and frustrated, and grabbed my camera. A man with a lanyard and tape recorder came up to us, quickly and timidly.
"Hi. I'm from Night Vale radio, and I want to ask a few questions."
"Sure." I said, stopping and leaning on the van.
"What are you doing here?" He asked. I winced.
"We were sent here to investigate the strange occurrences of Night Vale." I said. The boy cocked his head and looked very confused, so I added, "We're scientists."
"Oh that's good. How long do you think you'll be staying?" He asked.
"Hard to say. It really depends on when we find what we're looking for." I said. He nodded. He waved, and left us to our business. I turned back to the van and opened the door, tossing my camera into the passenger seat.
"Where are you going?" Sammy asked.
"I'm going to take a picture of the sign and see if it's the same on my camera as I can see it. Then maybe I could show it to you." I told her, getting into the van.
"Aw, you're just going to go cry now, aren't you?" Thomas called.
"Be an adult!" I heard Will shout to him. I shut the door and buckled up. The van was still running since we'd all just gotten out. After a few minutes of driving, the man on the radio intrigued me.
A new man came into town today. Who is he? What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat? He says he is a scientist. Well, we have all been scientists at one point or another in our lives. But why now? Why here? And just what does he plan to do with all those breakers and humming electrical instruments in that lab he is renting—the one next to Big Ricco's Pizza? No one does a slice like Big Ricco. No one.
I blinked. Only Tom and I had hair, and Will had a beard so who could he be talking about? It should have freaked me out, considering he could be talking about me. Was it his honey-like voice? I got to the sign just as I was wondering what was going on, and I pulled over. I looked at it and rolled down the window. It was the same as I'd seen it before. I took a picture of it, and it came out the same as I was seeing it.
"I hope this works." I mumbled. I drove back to the lab just as quickly as I left, and parked smoothly.
"Did you get the picture?" Samantha asked me. I nodded. I showed her the picture, and I noticed her expression changed.
"This is what it said to you, huh?" She mumbled.
"So you can see it?" I asked.
"Yeap. Pop 0…" She mumbled. Will came over and took the camera from her. He blinked and looked at me. He scratched his head and shrugged. I took the camera back and powered it off; placing it neatly within my suitcase I'd left in the van.
"You have a town meeting this afternoon." Will said to me, grabbing one of the last machines.
"Why me?" I moaned. I was the best at public speaking out of the group, since I could project my voice, but I hadn't gone to any public gatherings to talk about work that wasn't even mine.
"Someone stopped by and asked about you. She seemed to believe you were the head of this experiment. Also, the intern at the radio station came to you first. You might as well ride this to fame." He said to me. He began to eye me as if expecting me to remain silent. I didn't feel a sense of anger for some strange reason though. It was more of flattery, or just a childish sense of pride.
"I'm not stealing credit for your theory," I said, "but I will go to the town meeting and speak for you."
"That's what we like to hear, Carlos." Will said, smiling at me. I winced back at him. He really thought I was just going to steal his work. I thought. Samantha grabbed my wrist and spun me around. She pointed at the big building in the center of town.
"That's the building I want to check out. It looks really weird. We'll let Tom and Will finish setting up in here. Do you mind?" She asked.
"No, no it's fine." I told her, smiling at her. She gave a wide grin and began to drag me. I began to mumble about us taking the van, but she just shushed me.
"We have a while before the meeting at City Hall. I figured it might be nice just to walk around town and take a look at that giant building, you know?" She asked me. I winced. We had walked only a few blocks when I saw someone watching us carefully. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at a man. He had black, short hair except for near the top of his head, where it was long and bleached blonde, but not long enough to get in his eyes. His hair was brushed neatly on his head, so it wouldn't come onto his face. He had some stubble on his face, like he just forgot to shave this morning, but it managed to make him handsome. He wore purple cat-eye glasses, and on his forehead was a tattoo of a closed eye. He wore a white shirt with a dark purple bowtie, and a black vest. His shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, revealing lavender colored tentacle-like tattoos on his arms. He waved to us, and we waved back. He then jogged over to us and smiled.
"Hello. My name is Cecil. I'm the community radio host." He said, extending his hand. I was reluctant to shake it, since he was the one that gave the strange and out-of-the-blue compliments. Samantha took his hand and smiled.
"I'm Samantha." She said. He looked at me as if he were expecting me to say something. I winced and sighed. He cocked his head at me, and the expression on his face stirred something from deep within. I wasn't sure if it was fear, or maybe affection, but either way it discomforted me. I shifted a little and coughed, looking down the road. I felt his eyes burning into the side of my face, so I just sighed.
"Well, I guess I'm left huh?" I mumbled, looking at the ground, "My name is—."
"We have to go." Samantha said, tugging on my arm. Her voice had a sense of distress and fear. I looked at her. Her eyes were widened slightly and she was staring at Cecil. I glanced at him while Samantha tugged me away. I didn't notice much so I didn't know why she was freaking out. After we got a couple of blocks away I forced her to stop.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked her, tugging my arm free.
"The tattoo on his forehead changed." She said, "When you were talking, the eye opened."
"So? What if—wait, you said it opened?" I asked her, confused. She nodded.
"Well that's one thing on the list of stuff we don't know." I mumbled. She nodded. I glanced over at seven people standing there and watching us. A man in a gas mask and riot gear armor tapped my shoulder and pointed to them. Samantha stood there, confused slightly, but I began to walk to them. I don't know how or why I knew that's what the man was saying, but I did. The group of seven nodded to me, all in unison. They walked inside of City Hall, and I followed. Samantha stayed outside, nervously playing with her shirt, telling me it was a bad idea to follow them since they were very creepy.
"Are you aware that writing utensils are banned here?" They asked, all in unison. I jumped a little at the sudden topic.
"I'm sorry?" I asked them.
"Oh how rude of us." They said, "We are the City Council. Did you know about the ban?"
"Uh…No. I never heard that rule, considering we arrived about twenty minutes ago." I said, "But if you wouldn't mind, I would like to be able to use them purely for research notes, if you didn't—."
"You and your scientists are not a part of Night Vale. Yet." City Council said in unison, "Therefore, most of our laws do not apply to you."
"Such as…?" I asked, worried.
"Well, you can use writing utensils." City Council said, "We will send you a list later on today. Expect it to appear under your bed."
I felt a sense of distress at that, considering that's not the normal means of mail delivery. I nodded. City Council then hissed at me, and I backed away from them. Their hissing got quieter, but it was still there. From the way I moved, I judged that they wanted me to leave. I exited City Hall, and stared at Samantha. She was smiling at me, nervously scratching her arm.
"What did they want?" She asked me. I shrugged it off. I felt someone staring at me, and I glanced over. It was Cecil. He was just standing there, closer than we'd been before, but not too far away. It caused shivers to run down my spine, but it wasn't because I was afraid. Why did I not fear him? What was he doing to me? Was it his voice? Was it his voice?!
"You never got to tell me your name…" Cecil said. His voice was pained, and he hesitated after he said name. He looked away from me, and down at my shoes. I just stared at him. I was confused, very confused. Obviously he had met me before and expected me to remember him, or something like that.
"Do you know me?" I asked him. He suddenly looked up at me, a combination of excitement and fear was in his eyes. He read my expression, and disappointment filled his eyes.
"Kinda, sorta…" He said. Cecil and I stared at each other for about twenty minutes before he coughed and scratched the back of his head.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked. Cecil shifted his weight slightly.
"Well," He started out, his voice discomforted, "I kinda figured you heard my name over the radio, though I guess it's understandable since I didn't introduce myself, and also you look almost exactly like my old high school… friend that left Night Vale."
"Ah. Was his name, perhaps, Jeff?" I asked. Cecil's eyes lit up.
"You know him?" He asked. I nodded.
"We were roommates before I came out here. When I told him I was going with William to Night Vale, he shuddered and mumbled about how I was crazy to go with him." I said, sighing, "So far nothing has made me extremely anxious to leave."
Cecil smiled, widely. His grin made me smirk a little, since he was so happy that I was staying. Samantha began to hum slightly, a soft tune to herself. Cecil turned to her and winced.
"Sorry." He said simply, turning to her, "Did you come with William and this man?"
"It's William's idea to study this city. The outside world hears so much about this place that William wanted to see how this place ticked." Samantha said, folding her arms over her chest. Cecil smiled at her. It seemed more like a wince. Samantha had daggers in her eyes. I winced as well.
"Well, isn't it this man that's giving the announcement? It should start in a few minutes anyway." Cecil asked again. When I glanced behind us, I saw people filing into City Hall. It amazed me at how they just knew it was now. There hadn't even been an announcement, I think.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean it's his—." Samantha started. I tapped her arm and began to enter the building. She sighed and followed me. We walked to the front of the rows and rows of chairs, and stood there. It was a little intimidating, considering it was the whole town. Cecil took his seat near the front, by an old woman who had brought corn muffins. I cleared my throat after getting a nod from the government agents standing in the back, and I nodded at them.
"Hello there, Night Vale, my name is Carlos." I began, "As you were told, scientists have moved into the lab by Big Rico's Pizza. This is entirely true. We are here because your community, by far, is the most scientifically interesting community we've ever come across. Our main purpose here is to see if we can put a lid on all of the paranormal activity going on in this town, and subsequently make a list of everything abnormal. We will also be trying to protect the community from strange happenings."
"What about the plane disappearing and re-appearing in our gym?" One of the people asked. A murmur of support was heard through the crowd. I winced, but it seemed more like a grin to the town.
"We will be…looking into that. At this moment in time we have very little to no research on this place, considering the fact we've just moved here. I hope to answer all of your fears and questions soon, but for right now any and all questions must be kept to yourselves." I replied, feeling anxious. These types of meetings could quickly turn into an interrogation, and I wasn't sure if that's what we needed right now. The people seemed to not suspect anything, all nodding and standing to try some muffins from the old woman. Cecil grinned at me again, before ducking out after taking a muffin. The old woman hobbled to me and handed me a muffin. I stepped down from the podium and took a small bite.
"Hello, Carlos. I am Old Woman Josie. Do you like the muffins?" She asked me.
"They're pretty good." I said, "Do you bake often?"
"If that's in reference to the salt, the Angels took all of it on a holy mission. I only heard about the meeting this morning, and I didn't have time to go get more." She said, her voice sweet but slightly defensive.
"No, no that's not why I asked. I just wanted to know if the others could be expecting baked goods every once in a while." I said, smiling.
"Ah. Well, if you like I could do that." She said, patting my arm and hobbling away to go talk with some other people. Samantha and I began to head out, since our job was done. The man on the radio stopped me.
That new scientist — we now know is named Carlos — called a town meeting. He has a square jaw, and teeth like a military cemetery. His hair is perfect, and we all hate, and despair, and love that perfect hair in equal measure. Old Woman Josie brought corn muffins which were decent, but lacked salt. She said the Angels had taken her salt for a Godly mission, and she hadn't yet gotten around to buying more. Carlos told us that we are by farthe most scientifically interesting community in the U.S., and he had come to study just what is going on around here. He grinned, and everything about him was perfect, and I fell in love instantly. Government agents from a vague yet menacing agency were in the back, watching. I fear for Carlos. I fear for Night Vale. I fear for anyone caught between what they know and what they don't yet know that they don't know.
Samantha caught up to me and smiled. She elbowed me softly.
"Someone's got a stalker!" She teased. I stared at her, locking my jaw. It didn't bother me that Cecil fell in love with me, or that Samantha was teasing me, it bothered me that she was implying that Cecil could be a stalker, or at least someone not to be trusted. I can't explain why. I walked outside into the blistering heat, and began to make my way to the lab. Samantha was walking behind me a few paces and mumbling to herself. I wasn't exactly paying attention, but when I got to the lab Will was pale. He was breathing heavily.
"Are you alright?" I asked him. He shook his head. He looked at me, and fear was in his eyes. My brows creased in confusion.
"I can't stay here." He said, breathless.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him, coming closer. He shrieked and shook his head.
"Follow me." Tom said. He grabbed hold of Will and dragged him along. There were a handful of scientists whose names I didn't know following us. Obviously the second group arrived. We got to the house just behind the elementary school. I stared at it, and it unnerved me.
"It's not there." Will whispered, trembling. I glanced over at him.
"How do you know that?" I asked him.
"I threw a rock, and it vanished. No windows broke. Nothing happened. The rock just disappeared." He whispered again. I shifted slightly.
"Carlos, I'm leaving you in charge here. I can't stand it here. I hear whispering, someone telling me to leave. I think I should listen to it." Will said, turning on his heels and walking away quickly. He tossed the van keys back to me, and I caught them. He broke into a run, ignoring the used car we were towing behind the first van. I blinked a couple of times before turning my attention to the house. I picked up a pebble and threw it at the top window. Sure enough, the pebble went through the window. It didn't shatter, nor did the pebble bounce off. I blinked in slight confusion. I took out my notebook and made a quick statement about this house, turning to the group.
"Who wants to go knock on the door?" I asked.
After returning to the lab, having no volunteers to go knock on the door and being antsy about it myself, I got a call from the monitoring station near rout 800. I was hesitant, since I had no idea how they had my cell phone number, but I picked up the phone anyway.
"You need to come down, right now." The man said.
"Alright…" I said, hanging up. I looked at Samantha.
"I'm needed in the monitoring station. I'll be back soon." I said. She nodded. I stepped out to the used car that we'd unhooked and got in. I turned the car on and Cecil's voice greeted me.
…and swore that he would discover the truth. No one responded because it's really hard to take him seriously in that headdress of his.
I turned off the radio. I drove quietly to the station and got out, being greeted by one of my scientists. He began to speak very quickly, in jumbled up sentences.
"Calm down. Explain what is going on." I told him, patting his shoulder.
"Earthquakes. There are large-scale earthquakes going on right now. We were thinking it was maybe the machines, so we need help re-setting them." He said. I nodded, feeling a slight sense of nervousness. I entered, and sure enough we were getting readings of large-scale earthquakes. I quietly re-calibrated one of the machines, and reset the rest. It was still for a while, as was all of them. Then, just as I was about to turn to the scientist, the readings picked up again. I reset the machine I re-calibrated, and re-calibrated the rest. Again, the machine went silent for a while. Just as much time passed before it began to pick up on the readings.
"Well, uh, I guess we're getting a really bad earthquake." I said, scratching my head. I took out my notebook and jotted this down. As if on cue, a member of Night Vale radio came asking questions about this. I squinted at him.
They always show up right when we discover something. I jotted down, And always asking about that exact thing we're researching or discover. Cecil always delivers the information as the next segment. Is it possible that Cecil knows what we're doing? If so, how? Samantha mentioned his eye tattoo. It was closed when we first met, but open when he chatted with me. Does that have something to do with this?
"Carlos, what do we say?" One of the scientists whispered to me. I looked up from my notebook and adjusted my glasses.
"There have been extreme seismic shifts going on right below us that we should be feeling, but aren't." I said, "We double checked the machines, calibrated them, and we even reset them. They still give off the same reading. The strange part is nobody, not even I, can feel them."
"Should we be concerned?" He asked me.
"No, not yet. We'll try to deliver more information when we figure this out." I told him. The boy nodded and waved, stepping out. I closed my notebook and put it away.
"You think you can handle things here?" I asked. They nodded. I gave them a nod and headed out to the car. I got in and turned the car on. I sat in the car, motionless and still. Nervously, I turned on the radio.
Carlos and his scientists at the monitoring station near Route 800 say their seismic monitors have been indicating wild seismic shifts — meaning to say that the ground should be going up and down all over the place. I don't know about you folks, but the ground has been as still as the crust of a tiny globe rocketing through an endless void could be. Carlos says that they've double-checked the monitors and they are in perfect working order. To put it plainly, there appears to be catastrophic earthquakes happening right here in Night Vale that absolutely no one can feel.
Well, submit an insurance claim anyway. See what you can get, right?
I turned the radio off again, quickly. My heart was pounding. I pulled out my notebook with a shaking hand. I tore out the page where I wrote about Cecil, and put that notebook away. I always carried two, so I pulled the second one out. I transcribed what I initially wrote, and made a new paragraph.
Cecil did report on what we just told the boy from Night Vale community radio. How did he do that? Did the boy sprint? Obviously he had too little time to get back to the radio station from here, so something is definitely wrong, or at least strange. Come to think of it, the boy had purple eyes. I remember that Cecil had purple eyes too. Is Cecil psychic? The boy smelled faintly of Vanilla as well. That vanilla smell unnerves me. It doesn't seem natural. Why would he smell like that? I need to go check out the station. Later, during the break.
I looked up and sighed, pulling out of the monitoring station. I turned the radio on and ignored the music. I checked my watch as the sun set, and noticed it was off. Off by ten minutes. Right then I received a text from Samantha. I pulled over and checked it. She sent that Cecil stopped by, and had just left. She said that they found that the sun set ten minutes after it was supposed to.
Welcome back, listeners.
The sun didn't set at the correct time today, Carlos and his team of scientists report. They're quite certain about it. They checked multiple clocks and the sun definitely set ten minutes later than it was supposed to.I asked them if they had any explanations but they did not offer anything concrete. Mostly they sat in a circle around a desk clock, staring at it, murmuring, and cooing.
Still, we must be grateful to have the sun at all. It's easy to forget in this hot, hot, hot desert climate, but things would actually be slightly harder for us without the sun. The next time the sun rises, whatever time that turns out to be, take a moment to feel grateful for all the warmth and light and even, yes, extreme heat that our desert community is gifted with.
A chill ran down my spine. This time, I wasn't there. I drove quickly to the station. I'd packed a handheld radiation detector, and took it out. I walked up to the door and it began going crazy. I knocked, and an intern let me in. I walked to the booth where Cecil sat at his desk. It had everything neatly organized, and a microphone sitting on top of it. There was a photo next to the microphone on my right. There were various stacks of paper, labeled by story importance in a numerical order. Since ten was the closest pile to his right hand, I assumed he was right-handed and ten was the most important. He looked up from reading a story, and smiled. He began the public service announcement, and I stepped inside.
"Sorry for disturbing you." I told him. He waved his hand.
"The next story was pre-recorded. We do this so that I can take some breaks." He said. He stared at the machine I was holding in my hands. It was beeping more than it had been before. A chill ran down my spine again. Obviously the station was experiencing extreme radiation, but from what? I began to smell vanilla.
"What's this for?" He asked, pointing at the radiation detector. I didn't want to freak him out by telling him exactly what I was looking for, so I told him I was looking for materials. He tried to inquire more about them, but I walked to the microphone. It went bonkers, beeping out of control. This may be the point of radiation, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't take chances, tough.
"You need to evacuate…" I said, feeling intense worry and fear, "Now."
"But—." Cecil began to protest.
"I'm serious. This is dangerous." I told him. I quickly left, and got into the car. I drove away quickly, the radio still on. I was heading for the lab.
Carlos, perfect and beautiful, came into our studios during the break earlier but declined to stay for an interview. He had some sort of blinking box in his hand covered with wires and tubes. Said he was testing the place for "materials." I don't know what materials he meant but that box sure whistled and beeped a lot. When he put it close to the microphone it sounded like, well, like a bunch of baby birds had just woken up. Really went crazy. Carlos looked nervous. I've never seen that kind of look on someone with that strong of a jaw. He left in a hurry. Told us to evacuate the building. But then, who would be here to talk to sweetly to all of you out there?
Settling in to be another clear night and pretty evening here in Night Vale. I hope all of you out there have someone to sleep through it with. Or, at least, good memories of when you did.
Goodnight, listeners. Goodnight.
I'm so sorry people! All I did before was update one thing that I noticed was wrong and it became impossible to read. I'm so very sorry!